as sure that there must be a
better God--that was all.

From this time, however, her imagination rode rampant once more over
everything. The vision and the dream were upon her. All wholesome
interest in her work was over. There was an old piano in the
reception-room which the girls were allowed to use for their amusement
on half-holidays, and she often went there; but even when she
practised, she moved her fingers mechanically, her mind busy with
vivid scenes and moving dramatic incidents; so that her beloved music
was gradually converted from an object in itself into an aid to
thought.

It was only six weeks to the holidays, but oh! how the days dragged!
She struggled to be conscientious, to be good, to please Miss Crow, to
escape bad marks; but everything was irksome. Getting up, lessons,
breakfast, making her bed, practising, lessons again, dressing, going
out, dinner--the whole round of regular life was an effort. Her face
grew thin and pale, she began to cough, and was put upon extras again.
"We can't let you go home looking like that, you know," nurse said.
Beth looked up at her out of her dream absently and smiled. She was
enjoying a visionary walk at the moment with a vague being who loved
her. They were out on a white cliff overlooking the sea in a wild warm
region. The turf they trod on was vivid green, and short and springy;
the water below was green and bright and clear, sea-birds skimmed the
surface, and the air was sweet. But presently the road was barred by a
rail, so they had to stop, and he put his arm round her, and she laid
her head on his shoulder; and the murmur of wind and water was in her
ears, and she became as the lark that sang above them, the curlew that
piped, the quiet cattle, and all inanimate things--untroubled,
natural, complete. All intellectual interest being suspended, she had
begun to yearn for a companion, a mate. Her delicate mind refused to
account for the tender sensation; but it was love, or rather the mood
for love she had fallen into--the passive mood, which can be converted
into the active in an ordinary young girl by almost any man of average
attractions, provided she is not already yearning happily for some one
in particular. It is not until much later that she learns to
discriminate. There were girls at the school who saw in every man they
met a possible lover, and were ready to accept any man who offered
himself; but they were of coarser fibre than Beth, more susceptible